Posts for 'Tips' Category

I was terrified of Bikram yoga before taking my first class a few months ago. Even though I’ve practiced yoga regularly for about two years now, the idea of doing backbends and downward-facing dogs in such oppressive heat—Bikram rooms are kept at a minimum of 105 degrees and 40 percent humidity—sounded excruciatingly hard. But despite the difficulty of that first class, I made it through the entire thing in one sweaty piece. What’s more, I felt great afterward, as if I’d spent the last ninety minutes at a spa instead of doing asanas in a crowded room. My mind and body felt strong and rejuvenated. I mean, I practically skipped home. That’s a rarity.

Now that I’ve done it a few times since, I realize that not every session brings such euphoria. But a mild buzz is still surprisingly standard, and it makes me wonder how I’d feel if I did it regularly. Bikram’s Yoga College of India suggests that beginners practice every day for two months to see results, which sounds intimidating and possibly impossible. (I do have a life outside of yoga, after all.

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Schools are taking special care of students appearing for X and XII board exams this year. An interesting measure that has been adopted is to expose children to Carnatic music to help them concentrate. Geethanjali Vidyalaya gives students an one-hour music class weekly which helps in building focus.

Yoga classes are also a big hit among these students. "Although students from Class V have yoga classes, we take special care for students preparing for boards. If required, we conduct it twice a week as against the schedule. We have had students who said it helps them to relax," said Aayeeshah, the yoga teacher in Delhi Public School.

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In Sanskrit, the word "Yoga" does not specifically mean to yoke or unite.  It carries at least six different meanings which are context dependent - "Yoga" can mean anything from "unite" to "machine."At the beginning of the above paragraph Yoga presented itself as four thousand years old. In the middle of the paragraph, Yoga became six thousand years old. Now, having the last word, I can state with absolute authority that Yoga is eight thousand years old, perhaps!

It appears that the cogent approach is a liberal one; we'll take what we have at the moment and run with it because the moment is all we have. Eight thousand years old is my final offer, maybe.

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In humans, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is directly responsible for the regulation of muscle tone. Low GABA levels are associated with depression and other widespread anxiety disorders. To study the association between yoga and changes in mood and anxiety, researchers followed 34 Americans with no significant medical / psychiatric disorders, who were randomised to yoga or walking for an hour thrice a week for three months.

Mood and anxiety scales were taken at weeks 0, four, eight, 12, and before each magnetic resonance spectroscopy scan. Researchers compared the brain gamma-aminobutyric acids (GABA) levels of yoga participants with those who spent time walking. It was found that those who practiced yoga had a significant decrease in anxiety and greater improvements in mood than those who simply walked. The study suggests that yoga can be effective in improving mood and relieving anxiety.

Women who have had gynaecological cancer are invited to learn more about how yoga can benefit them at Yeovil District Hospital later this month. The GOSSIP patient support group provides advice and information for women with gynaecological cancer.

It was founded by the Gynaecological Cancer Specialist Nurses based in Yeovil and Taunton in partnership with women from across Somerset and Dorset who have had gynaecological cancers (i.e. cancers of the ovary, womb, vulva or cervix).

Attending meetings enables patients to meet with other women who have a similar diagnosis and may have had similar treatments. Partners, family members and friends are welcome to go along as well. A specialist nurse is present at meetings and will be happy to answer questions and discuss concerns on a one-to-one basis.

Harried parents are descending on new outlets for their children, with yoga becoming increasingly popular.

Junior devotees are doing the downward dog complete with barks and the cobra to a crescendo of hisses in a twist on the holistic practice.

Boisterous children and those with attention disorders are among those reaping the benefits, according to instructors.

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The Yoga Puppies and Yoga Kittens calendars, 2011, are all about picking up your yoga moves from flexible felines and contorted canines. Photographer Dan Borris, 53, has created the artwork. Borris, get his wife Alejandra's to hold and coax the pets into approximations of classic poses, relying on her skills of being a Yoga teacher.Later, computer software is used to make it look authentic.

Borris of San Antonio, Texas, insisted that animal rights activists can relax, breathe and hold on to the thought that the pets are happy to go along with it. "Kittens and pups are very flexible but there's no forcing the animals to do anything," the Daily Express quoted him as saying.

 Yoga is fast becoming a big trend in Australia as it is being practiced by children of 6 weeks to 5-7 year olds. Yoga is helping the children find their calm inner selves. More and more daycare centres and pre-schools are calling in professional yoga instructors to help calm boisterous children.

Melissa Knapp taught yoga for several years before opening a yoga studio in Willoughby in Sydney's north in November 2009. "People were like 'Why do kids need yoga?'. Now people seem to be a bit more comfortable with it.

Kids have a lot of stress, especially kids in primary school. Whether it's making friends or bullying, they just don't know what to do to relieve stress. No one teaches you how to relax at school," Melissa said. She teaches babies up to primary school-aged children yoga using imaginative storytelling and simple postures.

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What I continue to learn, daily, is that yoga is not contained in asana. Yoga is, or should be, part of everything we do.

Which is great, until you find yourself slumped down on the couch, spine in an inelegant c-curve, eating blueberry pie with cheese and watching “Jersey Shore.”  Not that that’s happened to me. I mean, not in the last ½ hour, anyway.

Trying to live my practice should be, I feel, a source of great joy. And most often, it is. Living yoga – which to me means living mindfully, with my mind and body in the same place – is an incredibly beautiful practice. Eating mindfully, for example, by taking stock of the flavors on your tongue and textures in your mouth, can be downright sensual.

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The 18 men and women slowly climbing the steps to their yoga class at RAIN Inwood Senior Center the other day hardly resembled the young, lithe exemplars of America’s yoga boom. You won’t find the likes of Sylvia Guzman, 81, on the covers of yoga magazines or Francisco Batista, 88, on the proliferating Web sites hawking trendy yoga clothing.

But Mrs. Guzman, Mr. Batista and the other 70- and 80-somethings who faithfully attend Ricardo Sisco’s chair yoga class every Friday are a vanguard in one of yoga’s fastest-growing fan bases: the very old. More and more retirement communities offer gentle yoga classes, with heavy emphasis on breathing and awareness and less on movement. In chair yoga classes like Mr. Sisco’s, almost all poses are modified so that they can be done in a chair, accommodating people with balance problems or weak legs.

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